TSMP Law Corporation partner in the litigation department Ong Pei Ching was quoted in a personal column written by Vivien Ang of the Business Times on dos and don’t on social media. It was published in the 25 July 2020 weekend edition.

She said that it is good to observe the three no’s and two yes’s of social media.

“No falsehoods – don’t say anything which you know is factually untrue; no doxxing – don’t publish someone’s contact details, in an effort to harass the person; no attacks – don’t stir up hatred, especially against a racial or religious group. Yes to following community guidelines and rules of the social media site you are posting on; yes to always considering what would happen if someone took your post out of context.”

Ms Ong adds that legal recourse over online squabbles ought to be the last resort. “In the heat of the moment, one of my clients was sued for defamation over a couple of Facebook posts, which he deleted shortly after publication. By the time the matter was settled at the doorstep of trial, the parties had spent more time and energy on those short-lived posts than was warranted,” she says.